1st pic a month before I started…2nd pic after my third challenge and starting CF…3rd pic doing CrossFit, my passion! 🙂
Well, today’s my anniversary…my “fitness journey” anniversary. Four years ago, I decided I was sick and tired of being sick and tired. I had made the decision to start my own health/nutrition challenge through Body for Life after several years of feeling like a slug…eating the wrong things, not being active, sitting in a CHAIR while telling my PE kids what to do! Enough of that I said…so I embarked on what was a life-changing moment. I found an app called “Lose It” and started putting every single calorie into that app. I set a goal of losing at least 15# during that 12-wk challenge…Four years ago I weighed 223 pounds and I was a depressed and lazy soul. I knew I could make it happen because I had succeeded before with this nutrition/workout plan. I lifted weights (in sets and reps) 3 days a week and did 20 minutes of cardio 3 days a week. I was determined…I took pictures, weighed and measured myself every four weeks…After the first 4 weeks I think I lost 5#; it was something (and Christmas was in there so I had a free day) and I knew that if I stayed the course I would succeed. I plugged along continuing to enter my food/drink in the app, stayed motivated through an online forum (some amazing friendships were made through that!), and began to see some changes. My first challenge ended in March of 2010 and I lost 18# and about 10 inches. Took the pics again and they definitely do not lie. Friends and co-workers saw the change and encouraged me to keep going.
Enter Challenge 2…this is when I got the courage to enter my first 5K…May 1st, 2010 I ran my first one in 38:42. My goal was to run the whole way without stopping and to FINISH! I did finish and I got a 2nd place medal (ya, there weren’t very many people entered in my age group, but still, I was Ecstatic!) This started an at least twice a month 5K venture and the extra cardio helped me lose even more weight during the second challenge. During the second challenge, with my good eating habits, lifting heavier weights and doing more cardio, I finally got below the 200# mark; made it to 182# as I lost 23# during that time. Holy cow, the responses I got! I was on a roll!
I was starting to lose my focus with the same old routine of lift for an hour one day, run the next, lift for an hour the next and so on…I half-heartedly began my 3rd challenge and was 3 weeks into the challenge when I saw my friend post something about this “new” thing called CrossFit…she was going to take a Fundamentals class in her hometown. I was intrigued so I googled it and immediately saw that there was a CrossFit Kids program…that’s what attracted me to CF at the beginning. I wanted to incorporate CF into my PE program. I didn’t understand ANY of what was posted on the mainsite, what the heck was a WOD anyways and they did WHAT??? I told my friend she was crazy but brave for trying it. She made it through the class and would tell me what they did and she challenged me to do some crazy workout…so I went to my basement (home of the original Mid-MO Fitness), and did the workout…It was “only” about 8 minutes but it kicked my @$$! And she just laughed at me! 😉 This got me hooked…I started making up my own workouts and along with continuing with my running got caught up in the CrossFit craze. A box opened up in Columbia and I went to classes 2-3 times per week depending on my coaching schedule. I was hooked and was making up crazy stuff at home! Imagine that! After the last 12 weeks of another challenge, I lost another 17#, but went from a body fat % of 23% to 15% and that was because I started eliminating grains from my diet…It was crazy! I weighed 165# and people thought I only weighed 130!
So the CrossFit bug got me…I visited my friend in January of 2011 and we had this wild notion of getting CrossFit Level 1 certified; she wanted to become a trainer, I just wanted to have it so I could do the stuff “legally” at my school. In March of 2011 I became Level 1 certified and was on top of the world…and then came up with the Mid-MO Fitness business plan…run a couple of boot camps to help out the moms at the school. We didn’t do any weights other than the 10/15# kettlebells and body weight movements. We met at 5:30am or 4:45pm 2-3 days a week and that’s when my desire to help people really took shape. I conducted a seminar for nutrition/workouts and then things started rolling after that. I traveled to Tennessee in the Fall of 2011 and got inspired to apply for affiliation through CrossFit…3 weeks later I got confirmation that CrossFit Unstoppable was then one of the 6,000 affiliates worldwide. This was a scary time because at the time I was a wife, mom, full time teacher and was still coaching. How in the heck was I going to make a CF gym work?
The verse “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Phil 4:13 has kept me going this whole time. I have always believed that if I did the right things for the right reasons, then all will turn out the right way. So four years later and 3 boxes later, I can honestly say that I am the happiest I have ever been. I have been able to help hundreds of people ages 4-76 and the ripple effect from this amazes me! Give More, Get More…I hope that you all are the happiest you have been in a long time because of your experience with CrossFit Unstoppable…words cannot describe the emotions I have for you guys and gals…YOU keep me going and for that I thank you for making my day every day!
Hopefully you didn’t fall asleep during this little spiel, just wanted to share a special day with you! And know that WHEREVER you are in your fitness journey, you CAN DO IT!! Dedication, Discipline and Determination will get you through!
Have a happy Monday!
Work Hard, Eat Clean, Be BLESSED!!
